Kingdom Hearts: The True Aftermath
by Knight of the Moon
Summary: What is really going to happen after KH2? What happens to our beloved heroes? Read and find out!
1. Old Friends and Enemies

HI everybody, this is my "1st" experience writing a fanfic and I hope u guys like mine!

First off the disclaimer, I do not own Kingdom Hearts (1 or 2) or any of the content of the game. I also don't own Disney, Square Enix, or none of the other good stuff. Don't ask what I'd do if I did. This will go for every single chapter in my entire story.

**Kingdom Hearts: The True Aftermath**

Chapter 1:Destiny Island

"Zzzzzzzzzzz"

"…ra…? Sor….? SORA!

"Whahuh what happen?" Sora exclaimed as he jumped out of his deep sleep, only to find himself looking into the eyes of the girl he's always "admired" as a "friend"

"Hahahah, Sora, you really are a lazy bum, you know that?" said Kairi, a pretty redhead that lived on the island with Sora and Riku.

"Ah, Kairi, I was actually sleeping good for once after defeating Xemnas."

"Come on, we're finally ready to leave for the Disney Castle, and Donald and Goofy should be here soon! Hurry up! Let's go get Riku!"

"You're pretty hyper right now Kairi." Sora said with his trademark smile.

"I'm just excited Sora! I finally get to go with you guys! I don't get left behind!" She said enthusiastically, her eyes shining brightly. And plus, now that Naminé was inside her again, she had been feeling better than ever. Of course though, Sora couldn't criticize since he had felt the same way about Roxas.

"Alright, alright, let me just go home real fast, I'll be back in a flash!" Sora exclaimed, running towards his home. As he ran up the stairs and entered his room though, something seemed wrong. Sora flicked the light switch, but it wouldn't turn on. Suddenly a mixture ofdark blue, dark violet, and pure blackstarted to encompass the room and covered the door, blocking escape.

Then a dark vertical ellipse appeared in the center of the room and a strange woman with short blonde hair stepped out carrying little knives between her knuckles. She bore a trademark of a past Organization, the black coat.

"Who, who are you! Are,…are you with Organization XIII?" Sora yelled at the strange woman. "No, that can't be, we defeated them all!"

All the woman did was laugh as she brought her arms up and Sora saw that those knives had electricity running through them. Then, suddenly, she lunged towards Sora. He dodge rolled to the side and saw as her attack hit, and completely cracked, the wall that was behind him.

"You're just as quick boy, but not quick enough!

"You won't get away with this!" Sora exclaimed as he brought forth his keyblade. "Let's do this."

"Come boy, let's light this place up."

She jumped toward him again, but this time he blocked it with his keyblade, and started to attack back. As he swung, she jumped back and swung her knives around causing many small bolts of electricity flying toward him. He dodged the first few, but couldn't dodge them all as they pierced through his skin sending jolts up and down his spine. Then once again she jumped forward and attacked with her knives. Sora barely regained his composure in time to block the attack. Then she once again jumped back as she called the lightning to her weapons, giving them a "super" charge. She then threw this energy at Sora, who was ready to dodge everything she threw at him, but he couldn't dodge her attack. It was too fast as it fully paralyzed him and brought him right up to her. To him, he felt like he was being torn into two pieces. He was exactly where she wanted him to be.

"Ha ha haha. Gotcha."

"Ah, let me go dammit" Sora yelled kicking his opponent relentlessly. But to his dismay, she would not release him so easily.

"Lar…Lar…LARXENE!"

"Wha, who..? ROXAS! How did you separate from me?" Sora asked the strange young blonde that seemed to appear out of nowhere

"Larxene must have done it" Roxas replied angrily, bringing out his keyblade,"Let him go!"

"About time you came out, TRAITOR! Huh, ahh, calm down. But you can redeem yourself Roxas. All you have to do is destroy this boy and we shall pardon your crimes. Then join us yet again as we rebuild Kingdom Hearts."

"I'll never go back to you guys! No matter what you say or do, I won't go back!"

He ran forward and forced Larxene to release Sora. Then he attacked again and again, but he couldn't seem to hit her. Then she called electricity down straight to where Roxas was standing, giving him a good shock. At that same moment she rushed forward with her knives at the ready and attacked. He blocked her knives from getting through, but she used his keyblade to her advantage as she sent electricity through his weapon, shocking him again. With his guard down, she kicked him straight into the wall, making a huge dent in it.

Then the wall started banging right behind Roxas as it broke down and just collapsed. On the other side of the door was Kairi, Tidus, Wakka , and Selphie.

"What the hell?" Tidus asked totally confused.

"Who are those two?" Both Wakka and Selphie asked in unison.

Larxene just seemed to glare at them as she opened a portal and stepped through it, bringing the strange darkness with her.

Sora and Roxas were on the floor, practically knocked out.

"Sora!" Kairi yelled.

"What the hell happened in here?" Tidus asked.

"Ya man, what happened?" Wakka asked almost right after Tidus.

"That woman," Roxas muttered, "she was from Organization XIII."

"Um, pardon my asking, but who are you? I've never seen you before." Selphie asked with an inquisitive look.

"Him? He's my pal, Roxas." Sora said with a smile.

"But why is he here? Where did he come from?" Tidus asked.

"I'll explain everything later. Sora! I'm gonna go get Riku, so come on! You too Roxas!" Kairi ordered of the two young teens.

"Right, come on Roxas, let's go." Sora said, struggling to get up.

"Right behind you." Roxas muttered with a small smirk on his face.

So the six young teens started to run towards Riku's house, wondering if he was okay.

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"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Riku let out a long yawn as he got out of the shower. He grabbed his cloths and put them on, saying, "Finally, we should all be ready to go!"

He ran down his stairs and was about to walk through the door when a dark portal appeared right in front of him, revealing a big, burly man with brown hair. He wielded what looked like a giant tomahawk as he glared at Riku.

"What the, Lexaeus! I defeated you in Castle Oblivion!" Riku exclaimed. "How are you alive! You, you can't be here!" And as he said that, he brought out his keyblade and got ready to fight.

Lexaeus had never been one to say more than a couple words, so he gladly accepted Riku's challenge as he ran forward, thrusting his tomahawk in the ground as he ran. This caused giant rocks to fly towards Riku with great strength. Riku dodged a few shots and broke through the final one with his blade. As soon as the final rock hit the floor, Lexaeus rushed at Riku, attacking with his full power. Riku jumped up onto the stair banister and ran up to the second floor balcony. But Lexaeus was more agile than he looked as he jumped up right behind Riku and broke through the second floor balcony, causing Riku to fall back down to the first floor. Lexaeus than threw his tomahawk forward and watched as Riku jumped right over it. Then Riku turned around and saw that the tomahawk was returning to Lexaeus andattacked it before it could be used by Lexaeus again, causing it to fall to the floor. Then he turned his attention towards the now unarmed Lexaeus and attacked with his full power, knocking Lexaeus back and out the front door. Lexaeus then opened a portal and walked through as if nothing happened, disappearing without a trace.

"What the hell was that all about!" Riku screamed as he fell to the floor. He had taken more damage than he thought when he fell from the second floor. He laid back on the floor and just decided to stay there for awhile. What else could possibly happen, right?

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"Huff, huff, huff."

"Come on guys! Faster! Faster!"

"Damn, when did Sora get so fast?" Tidus asked, wondering about Sora's newfound speed and stamina. "His friend is pretty fast too."

"Ya, for real. Slow down man, ya." Wakka added, "even Kairi got faster man."

"But why won't they tell us what's going on?"

"Why, you ask? Because! They're all the way up there! Get back here!" Tidus screamed, but Sora and Kairi were too far ahead to hear him now.

"Damn."

"Sora, do you think Riku's okay?"

"He's fine, but he might need a little help."

"Don't worry you two. I don't even need to know Riku to know he's okay."

"Yeah, you're right Roxas. What the, Kairi! Look up! It's a gummy ship!"

They watched in awe asa Highwind and it's teeny ships landed right in front of them. Then the door hatch opened up revealing two figures, one of a duck, and one of a dog. They both stepped forward, and when they saw Sora, they ran forward at full speed and crashed right into him.

"Sora!" Both figures exclaimed in unison.

"Donald! Goofy! About time you guys got here!"

"Well, there's not much time for chitchat Sora." Donald said. "The heartless are back everywhere, Disney Castle was attacked, and the King's taken of for who knows where again!"

"The heartless came back? Well duh, we can't get rid of them until we get rid of the darkness in everyone's heart. But, they attacked Disney Castle? How? We protected the Cornerstone of Light and sealed the door. And as for the King, it doesn't seem to affect me as much anymore. He's always gone."

"That's not what I mean! The heartless numbers are greater than ever before! We were attacked by a man in a black cloak! And the King…." But Donald didn't get to finish as he was interrupted by someone else.

"The King, is already here." A mysterious figure behind them exclaimed.

"Your Majesty! When did you get here, a-hyuck."

"Hey there Goofy! I've been here, and I just retrieved Riku. Seems like he was attacked an took a pretty bad fall."

"I'm fine Mickey, really."

"Riku! Mick, I mean, your Majesty! Great to see you're both okay! But,Riku, who attacked you?"

"Someone from Organization XIII. Lexaeus."

"Just like us at the Castle." Mickey stated. "Minnie hired a florist for the garden, but instead of a florist, we got one of the XIII members..."

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"Hiya! This is our garden, and we're really counting on you! Wha…, you're cloths." A strange man stepped out of the ship hanger wearing a black cloak that covered his face.

"No problem." The man smiled evily as he pulled out a scythe that was encompassed by rose petals.

"You're, not the florist we hired, are you"

"Good observation, your majesty." He then swung his scythe at Mickey, but Mickey jumped back on one of the bush sculptures and questioned him further, "Who are you! Are you from Organization XIII!"

"Wow, we have a genius of a king. Ha ha! This will be easy," He then made petals bloom all over the bushes saying, "Well, I _am_ a florist, right?"

The petals broke of the bushes and started flying all over the place, slicing everything they touched. Then he took his scythe and rushed at Mickey and attacked again. The petals encircled them as they parried blow after blow. "You won't win." Mickey said with a determined look on his face. "Ha, I already have."

"Fire!" And in a sudden burst of light, half of the petals burned to the ground, as Donald and Goofy stood there, ready to help their King fight.

"Ha, some of your useless pawns, your majesty? You should know, they can't beat me."

"We'll see about that!" At that moment Mickey flipped right over his opponents head and struck him in the back. Then Goofy charged forward, hitting him with his shield and trapping him between the shield and the wall. "Goofy, now!" Goofy jumped away as Donald cast his thunder spell, electrifying the mysterious man with a powerful charge.

The man's hood then fell down, revealing brunette, curly hair and hateful eyes. "Hm, you're better than I thought, but you still stand no chance. And since you're going to ask me, it's Marluxia." And with that he opened a portal and disappeared into the darkness, leaving them in a destroyed garden…

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"Wow! But, uh, why would you need a florist? Don't you have servants or something to do that?"

"Well Sora, it needed to be done and the Queen gave all the servants the day off"Mickey responded. And then muttered, "even the magical brooms, which don't even have minds."

"Sora! Hey wait up! Sora!" Said a voice in the far distance.

"Huh, who's there?"

"Sora, Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka were following us, remember? You don't, do you?" Kairi said with a frown on her face.

"You really are an idiot Sora" Riku smirked.

"Say what you want, I know I'm a genius. Hmph!"

"There's no more time to waste Sora. We have to get going."

"To where, your Majesty?"

"Well, the Organization's base was the World That Never Was, right? Well, maybe Maleficent knows something. But even if she does, she won't tell us that easily. We might have to beat it out of her."

"Maleficent, huh? Good plan!"

"Alrighty then,since there's two ships, we'll split in two teams and take of for the World That Never Was! Goofy, Riku, why don't you two come with me, and the rest of you go in the other one okay? Great!"

"Alright, I'll just let those three know we're leaving, okay?"

"No! They mustn't know these details! Or else they could become targets for our enemies! We all leave now!"

"Alright, alright. I giess they really don't need to know anyways. "So guys, let's go!"

They got in their ships and flew off for a new adventure, leaving Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie in the dust.

"What da hell just happened?"

"Maybe Sora never came back and this is all just a dream?"

"You two think too much. We don't even know any details, so, you know what, we never saw this. Right, Tidus, Wakka?"

"Right!"

"But man, they're either really fast, or we're really, really slow. Dis sucks"

Long 1st chapter, but I think it's okay. Review please.


	2. The Gummy Ride

Thanks for the reviews! All two of you! But it's okay. I really didn't expect that many. Anyway, let's move on! Ch.2!

Chapter 2: The Gummy Ride

The World That Never Was never seemed to get any closer. It would take two days at least, before they got there. But, with increased heartless and nobody ships everywhere, who knew how much longer it would take.

"Hmmm, these rides seemed to go faster before." Sora smartly remarked.

"Sora, we just gotta keep our cool for when we get there. Besides, just because you like to drive at light speed through enemy opposition and asteroids, doesn't mean we're all like that." Roxas said, challenging Sora.

"Hey, it gets us there, doesn't it?" Sora said sarcastically.

"Now now, remember, no fighting. This ship runs on smiles." Donald said.

"Really, then why aren't you smiling Donald?" Roxas asked, as if to challenge Donald as well.

"It's because we're being attacked and I find it hard to concentrate with you guys arguing!" Donald loudly proclaimed

"Hey, it's not that bad right now, is it?" Kairi said as she walked towards them.

"Well, no. But you never know when something will happen." Donald told her.

Then suddenly Kairi released a huge yawn and said, "Well, I'm gonna get some sleep. Wake me when we get there."

"Uh, hey! Wait Kairi! I think, I'll a…, get some sleep too." Sora said with a little grin.

"Sora?" Everyone asked simultaneously.

"Stay up here with Donald and help him out if he needs it. The ship's not too hard to fly. I could fly after one day, without a whole mess of years of training." Sora told Roxas.

"Keep talking Sora, I'm still a better pilot than you." Donald said, with a grim look.

"That's what you think. Besides, I thought this ship ran on smiles." Sora remarked as he started to laugh, "Come on Kairi, let's go to…"

But as he spoke, the ship rocked with great force as they practically flipped over. "Donald! I thought you were a great pilot?" Sora mocked.

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"Goofy, what's the status?" Mickey asked, pressing many buttons to keep them stabilized.

"Other than the hordes of enemy ships, we're just perfect, a-hyuck." Goofy responded with his usual laugh.

"What about Sora and the others?" Riku asked

"They're still right behind us." Goofy said, when suddenly he saw Sora's ship swerve around and fly off radar as more heartless ships seemed to cover the entire area. "Well, they were right behind"

"What!" Riku exclaimed as he turned back around, as he looked at the radar. "Mickey, you better look at this…" Riku said with a worried look as the King brought the radar on the big screen in the front.

"When did these damn heartless numbers increase.?" Mickey said as he dodged a wave of shots aiming right at them.

"It may have been when we destroyed Kingdom Hearts. Maybe Maleficent didn't defeat them like we thought, but instead managed to control them. This could be her defense to her world." Riku said, hoping he was wrong.

"I think you're on to something Riku, but we can't be sure until we get there." Mickey told him back.

"Uh, your Majesty, Riku, a giant ship appeared on the radar, and it's shooting at us!" Goofy said as a great ship appeared on the radar.

"What! Where! I don't see it!" Riku exclaimed as he got all the weapons ready.

"Riku! It's at eight 'o'clock!" Mickey exclaimed as there in the middle of a pack of ravenous heartless, floated a huge heartless ship with cannons all along the port and starboard bows.

"We're gonna take evasive action guys, so buckle in!" Mickey told them as he flew between a volley of powerful shots.

He slid the gummy ship in between a gap in the cannonballs. He then flew towards the ship, breaking through the enemy lines as he let go of his bombs, destroying half of the deck. But it wasn't enough to halter the giant ship's movements as it released another volley of cannons. But before the cannon balls got too far, the cannonballs exploded, still near the ship. This caused the ship to rock over as Sora and Donald led the ship in a final attack, causing it to explode and destroy the surrounding heartless as well.

"Phew, you really saved us there Sora." Mickey announced over the intercom. "They almost had us."

"It's not over yet!" Sora yelled over the intercom, "look at that giant nobody!"

As he spoke, a giant nobody with four wings and boosters under the bottom two, a long tail, and the appearance of a dragon flew by.

"Sora! Isn't that what we fought when we were after Xemnas!" Riku said to Sora

"No Riku, this one is a lot larger, and it looks more powerful" Sora responded.

Both ships flew around the nobody, firing at all his body parts when they noticed something different about it.

"Sora, look. At his head." Riku said.

"What about it?" Sora asked him.

"There's a dome on it." Riku told him.

"Yeah. So what about it? Do you think there's something important in there?" Sora inquired.

"I think we should find out." Riku responded with a smile.

Both ships then flew around the nobody whilst destroying any smaller enemies that got in their way. The nobody then turned around as with a swipe of it's tail, it released several powerful shots at the gummy ships. They escaped damage from the tail, but Sora wasn't quick enough to dodge all of the projectiles.

"I thought you were a great pilot?" Donald sarcastically said as he destroyed a group of ships with the ship weapons.

"Oh please, If you were the pilot we would all be dead" Sora told him back as he successfully maneuvered between a group of asteroids and ships.

As they exited the asteroids, they ended up flying straight towards the giant nobody's wings as the wings came down as Sora barely escaped them.

"Mickey, we need to defeat this thing. It has to have a weak point somewhere!" Sora exclaimed after many attempts to destroy the outer body parts.

"Sora, let's try to get into that dome on it's head," Mickey told them over the intercom, "it's weak point might be up there!"

"Yeah, alright then, let's g…" Sora was suddenly stopped as suddenly a huge wave of nobodies appeared as they all flew forward. Then the giant heartless turned to it's side, and with it's movements, sent out multiple beams. After destroying a few ships though, Sora started to talk again, "Mickey, Riku! We're not gonna get anywhere like this! Since we're further in, we'll take care of these nobodies and distract the big one while you guys penetrate the dome! Got it! So hurry up, we'll be fine!"

"Right Sora! Let's go Riku, Goofy!" Mickey exclaimed, but as he spoke, his ship was attacked from behind as he lost control and headed for a crash landing with the nobody's head. "Well, look's like we're going in the hard way. Sora! Take care of the ones out there!"

Sora and friends were then surrounded by the ships as they fired on them. But with Sora's quick maneuvering, they got out with minimal damage. Now it was their turn as they flew around, destroying whole groups of ships with their laser fire. But it would take some time to eliminate them all…

The king's ship only gained momentum as it speeded straight for the dome on the monster's head. "Brace for impact!" the king yelled as they crashed right through the dome. The ship was trapped halfway in the dome as Mickey, Riku and Goofy got out of their ship to face their opponent. But all they saw were little puddles of water in the huge, coliseum-like area.

"_Wow. This place is so much larger than the one where we fought Xemnas."_ Riku thought as he noticed how many puddles that there really was. But then the puddles started to stand up and create water figures. "What the…" Riku began to say, but was stopped short as a nearby figure started to spin around and hit Riku square in the chest. "Ahh..!" Riku let a small scream out as he was surprised at how strong they actually were.

"This is… Your Majesty! Me, Sora, and Donald fought this guy. He controls water! He's tougher than he looks." Goofy yelled out

"Well, be careful, he still hasn't shown himself" Mickey said as he eliminated the water figures around him.

"WATER!" Someone screamed from above as they looked up and saw bombs of water falling from the top of the dome straight down to them. The water crashed down and split the three of them up. The water figures than made their advance on the three heroes. Riku than ran forward and slid underneath one that was spinning as he ran up to a still one and managed to grab it as he swung it around over his head destroying all nearby figures. "Mickey!" Riku yelled out, "you can grab them and use them against each other!"

"Gotcha Riku!" Mickey retorted as he used this method to defeat any figure near him. As the number of figures finally came down, Mickey encouraged his team, "We almost got'em guys! Just a few more!"

"That's what you think! Dance Water, Dance!" As that was heard, more water figures appeared and started dancing around. "Get rid of them quickly guys!" Goofy quickly yelled.

They then ran around and started slashing at every single one in their reach. Then Riku grabbed one by the tail and swung it around and threw it and a large group of water figured, dispersing them all.

"Got them all." But even as he spoke, a man with brown hair and a black coat jumped down wielding what looked like a guitar.

"Like my sitar? I love this thing!" He exclaimed, then continued, "Water!" And with a strum of his sitar, another wave of bubbles dropped from the ceiling and hit every one of them. He then pointed his sitar toward Mickey and shot a long stream of bubbles at him, throwing him against the wall. Goofy then charged forward, shield in hand, and tried to push the man into the wall. But with a quick swing of his sitar, he made Goofy fly, and with his combo, made a pillar of water appear under him sending him even higher.

"You're pretty good. But you can't beat me." Riku said as he charged forward and parried blows with his assailant. He then flipped over him and lashed out against him. But he was quick as his sitar swung around and hit Riku in the back.

"Who are you?" Riku demanded of him.

"Me? You don't know who I am? Gah, I'm so sad now. But you do want to know, so that's a good thing. I'm Demyx, and you guys are really weak. I them I wouldn't be able to do a good job, not to trust me, but I'm actually winning! Maybe I was the right one for this job after all!"

"Enough talk. You just proved you really are a loser." Riku ran forward again as Demyx started to hop around playing his sitar. "You have a good show, but I'm a showstopper!" Riku was back to back with Demyx, mocking him by pretending to play his keyblade. "Why you…" Demyx swung around at Riku with his sitar, but Riku ducked under his attack and countered with a strong right punch to the face.

"Mickey! Get him now!" But Demyx was quick as he landed on his feet and with a strum of his sitar, summoned a huge wall of water which sent Mickey back into the wall. Then he started summoning huge walls of water consecutively as he sent his opponents flying. He then pointed his sitar at Riku and released a huge beam of bubbles, but Goofy jumped in the way with his shield and blocked most of the bubbles and deflected them. The Riku used this chance as he jumped over Goofy straight towards Demyx as he hit him with the key blade right on the top of the head.

"AH!" Demyx released a small scream as he got hit right in the stomach and was sent flying. He then got up with a serious look in his eyes and screamed, "This is just getting started! I'll kill you all!"

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BOOM! "Got another group Donald!" Sora yelled.

"Great! Roxas, how are you doing?" Donald asked.

"Just fine. I got the hang of this real easy. And you said you had to go to a school to learn this?" Roxas told Donald with a small smirk.

"Grrrr. Well, we're almost done here. Let's finish them off quickly." Donald said as he shot another small group down.

Sora then lead them near the giant nobody and used it as a shield so they wouldn't have to face so many at once, and he managed to dodge every movement of the great nobody.

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"Dance Water, Dance!" Demyx yelled as more figures appeared from the water and danced their way towards the three of them.

"If only we had Donald's magic. It could've really helped." Goofy told Mickey.

But as Mickey spoke, Riku hopped into the air and yelled, "Dark Shot!" Suddenly small shots of darkness rushed towards the water and disposed of them all in less than five seconds.

"Well, that works too. Good job Riku!" Mickey proclaimed. "Now, all at once, let's get him!"

All three than charged at Demyx with their full force. Mickey and Riku jumped over him as Goofy charged straight with his shield. Demyx tried to hit Mickey and Riku, but missed, leaving him wide open for an attack from Goofy. Goofy hit head on and sent Demyx flying. Riku then jumped up and moved with Demyx's movements. Mickey ran alongside them on the ground. Then with a flip, Mickey was flying upside down and both Mickey and Riku started hacking away like crazy, leaving Demyx no room for a counter attack. Then they suddenly stopped attacking and landed on the ground, charging up their key blade. As Demyx flew head on into the wall, Mickey and Riku let out a combined charged attack which broke through the dome's hard material sending Demyx flying, literally. But before anything else could happen, he summoned a portal and floated through it, complaining, "I guess I wasn't the right one for the job after all."

And at that moment Sora, Donald, Roxas, and Kairi had shot the last batch of ships into the giant nobody's wings, destroying them and disabling it's ability to fly. "Woah, it does have a weak point," Sora remarked, but just then, it then lost control of it's flight pattern and crashed into an asteroid head on and destroyed the head of the beast. Sora's eyes widened as he realized what had just happened as he screamed, "Riku! Mickey! Goofy!"

"Do, do you think they're okay?" Kairi and Roxas asked with a really worried look.

"I sure hope so…" Sora and Donald responded.

"We're fine," They heard over the intercom, "but our ship is badly damaged. Think you can give us a ride?"

"Riku! Haha, I guess we could. I mean, why not?" They then flew forward and saw the smashed remains of the king's royal ship. "Let's get them outta there guys."

They then connected to the ship, and let the three passengers on board. "Wow. This place is going to be _really_ crowded." Roxas noted.

"Don't worry Sora," Riku said with a smirk, "you won't even know we're here. Not! At least The World That Never Was should be close by."

As he spoke they saw a giant citadel of a world with great energy emanating from it.

"Well guys, we finally made it." Mickey stated. "The World That Never Was."


	3. The Witch's Castle

WHOOOOOOOOOOOO! The chapter of the number three. Took me FOREVER to update. Sorry to anyone that wanted, oh whp am I kidding. Nobody wants to, yet that is.

Chapter 3: The World That Never Was

"Well fellas, are you all ready to go?" Mickey asked his teammates. "Maleficent might be expecting us, so keep your guard up."

As they proceeded out of the ship, they noticed the place still looked the same.

"Hey Riku. It's the Memory Skyscraper. Looks like it's locked." Sora said, noticing the lock on the door. "Wonder when Maleficent locked it. Haha, that stupid truck is still there too." He continued as they kept walking.

"Guys, here we are." Mickey said, "the entrance to the castle."

"Gawrsh, there hasn't been practically any heartless or nobodies. I wonder where they are?" Goofy said, hoping someone else had the answer.

"I don't think any of us know that answer Goofy." Roxas responded.

"Hey Roxas, do you still remember this place? What could the thirteen of you possibly do with that huge castle?" Sora asked.

"Truth be told, I don't remember that much about this place ever since Naminè messed with my mind."

"Heh heh, sorry Roxas." Kairi said.

"It's wasn't even Naminè's fault, so don't fret about it, okay?" Roxas told her assuredly.

"There's the entrance, and the light bridge is still active." Mickey said, "Let's go guys."

"Right behind you your Majesty." Donald chirped.

"Sora, I'm ready to help you guys out." Kairi stated, "I can fight. So please, don't treat me like a damsel in distress, okay?"

"I know, you're getting stronger Kairi. Don't worry about that okay, we'll do what we need to do." Sora told her. "But I will protect you with my life."

"Sora…"Kairi started, failing to hold in her blush.

"Come on you guys, let's go!" Riku yelled from the top of the bridge, and so they all entered the castle. But even as they walked throughout the castle, they still faced minimal resistance as they worked their way higher and higher.

"The proof of existence, eh. So that's what this room is." Sora said.

"Yeah, this is the way to get to all of our rooms, but they're supposed to turn red after a member's been defeated? They're all blue…" His voice trailed off, "Let's keep going guys!" And Roxas started running up towards the Altar of Naught.

"Come on guys, let's catch up with Roxas!" Mickey said as they chased him to the top. "Come on Sora!"

"But, but…" Sora stuttered, " I want to see Roxas' room!"

"No time, we have to follow him!" Donald yelled back.

"Fine," Sora muttered as he started after them, "but we are coming back here later!"

At the very top of the castle where Kingdom Heart's remains lay, there stood a tall, lanky woman dressed in black with horns protruding her head. She turned around and glared at all of the young heroes standing at the top of the stairs.

"So, you've finally made it here. I was expecting you sooner, you insignificant fools. Now why are you here!" She demanded of them.

"You knew we were coming, but you don't know why?" Riku said, "and you call us insignificant." Maleficent only glared at him as she turned to Mickey.

"We want you to tell us everything you know about Organization XIII." Mickey answered.

"Well, who said she knew that answer, hmm." A voice from behind Maleficent said.

"Pete! So, you're still following her around like a dog, eh?" Donald smugly remarked.

"Say what you want," he responded, "but you better leave if you know what's good for ya."

"We're not leaving till we get some answers!" Sora said as he and Roxas stepped forward.

Maleficent than spoke again, "Here's your answer. DIE!"

She than cast her magic and sent a powerful fire spell which created a wall of fire behind Sora and Roxas.

"Looks like we're going to have to face her alone Roxas. You ready?" Sora said with an excited look.

"Yeah, let's go!" Roxas responded excitedly.

"You will not win." Maleficent said, as she started to float in the air.

"Just like old times Maleficent" Sora stated.

"Old times, no. This is entirely new." She then waved her wand and sorcerer nobodies appeared out of nowhere.

"What! You can control nobodies too now!" Sora screamed in surprise.

But all she said was, "Get them." Next thing they knew they were dodging the magical cubes and started to attack Maleficent. "Fools" she smiled as a wall of fire surrounded her as more walls seemed to appear on the field. Then when they all disappeared, Maleficent was no longer there, and had moved from one pillar to another as she sent out a wave of her green fireballs. They barely dodged her attack which still lingered on the floor as the nobodies attacked with their cubes again. But with a well-timed reflect, Sora and Roxas knocked the cubes back at the nobodies, stunning them, then they jumped up and with a couple of aerial combo, defeated the sorcerers.

"You're next Maleficent!" Sora proclaimed as she started to fire a stream of fire at them. They ran to opposite sides of the area and both jumped in and attacked Maleficent, hitting her to the floor.

"How dare you, I'll destroy you!" She screamed as her figure started to change in the darkness. She turned completely black as her figure started to loom over their heads as wings sprouted from her back and she gained a great huge tail. By the time the darkness left her surrounding area, she had literally turned into a huge black dragon with a green underbelly. But she was too large to stand on the platform as she had to fly over them. She then flew down and to the side of the tower and placed her front claws on the platform, putting her bottom fight on the windows of the lower floors and breathed a huge stream of fire.

"Holy crap!" Roxas exclaimed as they dodged her fire breath.

"Uh yeah… I forgot to warn you about that." Sora told him.

"You sure did!" Roxas yelled as they dodged another stream of fire. Then she started to flap her wings with a great speed as it blew them back straight into the fire wall she made at the start of the fight. They hit the wall, but didn't go through and instead burned their backs and they screamed. They both fell and got away from the wall and Roxas asked, "What, what happened! You should have warned me about that! That was like a real wall!"

"I didn't know she could do that." Sora responded. "Looks like she's got some new tricks."

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"Sora! Roxas!" Kairi yelled as she saw their backs hit the fire. "We have to help them, she exclaimed as she turned towards Mickey.

"Hmm…But we can't seem to get through. Guys, come down with me." Mickey said as he started to go down the stairs which spiraled the top of the tower.

"Sure, if it'll help Sora." Riku said and so everyone agreed. So they all followed him down a bit, but when they reached the door, Pete was standing in their way.

"You ain't never gonna get past me!" He exclaimed as he started throwing little bombs up the stairs.

"These stairs are too narrow to avoid the bombs!" Riku exclaimed as they jumped up a bit.

"Hahahahaha! Is that all you got? And you want to defeat Maleficent, HA!" But even as Pete spoke, Goofy started running down the stairs with Donald on his back. So Pete flung a couple of bombs at them, but Goofy hit them with his shield, deflecting them. And before they could even hit the ground, Donald cast fire on them causing them to explode in Pete's face as he fell back. Then he saw Riku, Kairi, and Mickey run straight at him, keyblades at the ready, as they all attacked, flinging him down the stairs and into the next room.

As they proceeded, they saw Maleficent's feet clinging on to the narrow windows; two windows per foot. And as Pete got back up, they surrounded him as he encased himself in a small barrier and exclaimed, "I'm not beaten yet!"

But he couldn't do much as Riku's and Mickey's key blades hit his barrier head on and sent him flying right at one of Maleficent's feet. As it hit, she lost balance as they saw her face down by the window as she sent in a stream of fire, catching Pete in the draft after he bounced up, and sent him back riding on her fire. As he hit the ground, there was a small explosion as it blew them away a little. But Maleficent could no longer keep balance and she decided to fly up. But what she didn't notice was when she put her head down, Sora and Roxas had jumped on her back and were grabbing on for dear life as she took to the sky.

In the air, she then started to do some aerial movements to get rid of Sora and Roxas, but their grip was strong as they held on. But when she kicked off, she collapsed the part of the castle she was hanging onto as piece by piece, it started to fall apart. The top, with no more support, suddenly caved in and destroyed light bridges and platforms, sealing off an escape.

"Mickey, what are we going to do now?" Kairi asked in a scared tone.

"Well, we may have to jump from the pieces that are falling right now. It's the only thing I can think of that'll get us outta here quickly." He responded.

"But, it's so far…" Kairi stated as her voice trailed off.

"Hmmm, well, this has to go down somewhere. If we hold onto a piece and fall, we may be able to reach a safer place. But we have to hurry!" Riku yelled as the rest of the ceiling began to fall. "No time, we go now!" As they all grabbed some large pieces of debris and Riku grabbed Kairi and they jumped over the edge, not sure where they would land…

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"Roxas!" Sora screamed while hanging onto Maleficent, "We have to stop her!" While he was screaming, Maleficent did a loop in the air, forcing them to hang on for dear life.

"I know Sora!" Roxas responded. "But how?"

"How would I know!" Sora screamed back. They were both on her back, hanging on to her scales. Sora was just a few feet above Roxas on Maleficent's back as she started to fly down low and through the city. When she reached the entrance to the castle, she flew underneath the light bridge and dodged the falling debris as she started to spin. Sora and Roxas couldn't hold on as they both lost their grip and fell screaming.

Maleficent then started to fly out of the hole, but couldn't dodge all the rubble as a large piece came down on her head. She was almost out when she was hit again, this time not by debris, but by the two keyblades of Riku and Mickey as they smashed into the back of her neck. She reached the edge of the cliff as she used her claws to get a grip. As she struggled to get up, everyone on her back ran up her neck and jumped to safety. But as they landed, the ground Maleficent had grabbed onto and began to crack as it started to fall underneath their feet. She could no longer use her wings as there was too many falling pieces as she the cliff collapsed on top of her as she fell into the hole.

"Where, where is Sora and Roxas!" Kairi screamed as she realized they were nowhere to be seen.

"I, I don't know. They could still be at the top of that tower, or they could've fallen in the hole." Riku explained. "Either way, it doesn't look good."

"What are you talking about! We have to help them!" Kairi and Donald both yelled at Riku.

"Oh, and what do you think we should do, huh! Jump down that freaking abyss to who knows where!" Riku shot back. "I want them to be safe as much as you do, but what can we do?" He finished with a sad look on his face.

"All we can do hope for the best." Mickey told them.

"Sora…"

As Kairi began to speak again, suddenly Maleficent flew out of the darkness, and with a breath of fire, knocked some of the remaining rubble out of the way, but one large piece got through, and just as it was about to knock Maleficent out, it suddenly exploded. Maleficent then out flew out from underneath the castle, and just in time too, as what was left of the castle suddenly lost all it's remaining balance. Everybody just watched as the amazing castle fell into the dark abyss.

"SORAAAAA!" was all that could be heard after the castle collapsed…

"Sora..., Sora..., no Sora, you said you'd protect me, not hurt me…" Kairi sobbed.

Then Maleficent suddenly started to spin as two figures fell from her back as she went and landed in front of Memory's Skyscraper.

"Awww, isn't that cute Roxas, she's crying for me." Sora said as he and Roxas landed right behind them. "Come on Kairi, cheer up. You knew I'd be okay." He said with a cheerful voice.

She then swirled around and socked him in the chest, knocking him back. "How could I know that you idiot!" She screamed as she beat on his chest, tears streaming down her face, "How, how could I…"

"Kairi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you. But I'm here again, and I'm never going to leave you again. Especially not like that." Sora reassured her.

"But Sora, sob, I was so, sob, worried" Kairi cried out as she threw her arms around him.

"Wow Sora, Roxas, pretty flashy entrance." Riku smirked, hiding his relief.

"Kairi, I…" Sora started, "I didn't mean…"

"I'll explain then," Roxas chirped up, "we used our keyblades to cling to the wall, and when Maleficent came down, we made a quick agreement to help get each other out. We would've made it even if she wasn't down there by using each other and our keyblades, but this way was much quicker."

"Well that's good and all, but will she give us any information on Organization XIII?" Donald asked.

"She may, or we may still have to beat it out of her. Roxas did say it was a quick agreement." Mickey said.

"Do ya think we can win?" Goofy asked.

"Of course we can!" Riku told them, "She's no match for us."

"Come on Kairi, cheer up. We're all together now, nothing else can happen." Sora kept on. "Come on, you ok?"

"Well… I guess you're right." She said as she started to get up, her tears finally stopping. "But Sora, you have to promise me to never, ever make me worry like that again!"

"All right Kairi, I promise." He said with a sincere smile. "Now, let's go confront Maleficent!" He exclaimed as he turned around. "We'll get that information out of her, no matter what!"

"Too bad Roxas, I really wanted to seee your room." Sora told him as they walked.

"Uh, no you didn't. Trust me." Roxas told him back.

"Right guys! Let's go!" Riku said as they walked down the path where they saw Maleficent looming body, and Pete right behind her.

"What! Even Pete got out, I wonder how." Donald asked.

"That doesn't matter, either way, we're just gonna have to beat him." Riku told him.

"Maleficent!" Mickey yelled out to her, "Are you going to give us what we want, or are we going to have to make you tell us!"

"Why would she tell yous guys anything at all!" Pete yelled back.

Maleficent then brought her head up and released a big ball of fire straight at them and watched as they all moved out of the way.

"Well," Kairi said, "looks like that's our answer."

They then split up and surrounded Maleficent while Mickey confronted Pete. Mickey jumped toward Pete, but Pete swung his arms around knocking him back. Then Mickey started to run straight at him as Pete but up his barrier, but with a flash of light, Mickey was behind Pete who was still laughing until, suddenly, his barrier was cut in two. Pete then felt his gut as he felt the full pain of Mickey's attack as he fell down.

"Maleficent, Pete is already down, you sure you want to continue?" Sora asked smugly.

But just then she swung around and hit Roxas, Goofy, and Mickey with her tail and knocked them down. She then tried to bite Sora, but he jumped right over her head as he struck her right on the side. She reared her head back up as she started to spew her flames again. Sora quickly got Kairi out of the way as Riku jumped over them and then quickly slid underneath her where he met Roxas, who had the same idea. They both then started to attack her underside relentlessly. Mickey then jumped on her back and ran up to her neck as he attacked with his key blade. She then dropped herself on top of Riku and Roxas and used her tail to knock Mickey off her back. But before she could do anything else, she noticed the ground where Roxas and Riku were was actually frozen from Donald's magic, and she then saw both Roxas and Riku simply slide out from underneath her. She then got back up on all fours, and she shot a large amount of fire into the air and watched as it exploded and started raining fire all around them. She then started shooting quick blasts in succession which followed each of her enemies. Sora jumped back towards Kairi and started to deflect every shot, but one hit him in the side, knocking him down as Maleficent stretched forward and attempted to bite Sora, but Kairi stepped up and hit her right under her chin, knocking her back.

"Nice one Kairi," Sora told her as he got back up, "you really have gotten stronger."

"Thanks Sora." she responded.

Roxas ran behind Maleficent while Sora charged her from the front. He dodged the fire still raining from above, and jumped up, and used firaga on the fire she already had out, making it's energy overflow, causing what was left to explode in Maleficent's face. Roxas then met Sora on top of her and used reflect to protect Sora from the blast. They then both jumped at her face, putting all their strength into their final attack. They smashed right into her, Roxas from the left, and Sora from the right. They kept pushing as they felt the energy escape from her. They then noticed they were no longer standing on top of a dragon and they both fell, landing gracefully on their feet. Maleficent was in her normal form again and was breathing quite hard.

"So, you gonna tell us what we want to know or what?" Sora asked her.

Instead of answering, she just pointed her finger at the door to Memory's Skyscraper and shot forth a small amount of energy which entered the lock, and disintegrated it from the inside out. Darkness then enveloped her and Pete and they just disappeared.

"Do, do you think they're still alive?" Goofy asked.

"I don't know, but it looks like there's something important in that skyscraper." Mickey responded.

"So then, what are we waiting for?" Riku asked them. "Let's enter Memory's Skyscraper.


	4. Memory's Skyscraper

…4! CH.4! No way! It's finally time for

Chapter 4: Memory's Skyscraper

"Whoa" Everyone exclaimed as they walked through the front door. "It's, surprisingly nice in here." Sora said.

"It's like a hotel…except everything looks dark, with those bright lights here and there." Kairi observed.

But as they spoke, many dusk nobodies suddenly appeared and surrounded them. "What the! Well, this must be where they all went." Roxas said to Goofy.

"No time to talk guys, let's get 'em!" Mickey said as he jumped right into the nobodies and started to destroy them. Everyone else followed suit as they jumped in and started to destroy their enemies.

"Finally, cleared them all," Riku said as he destroyed the last one there. "Where to next?"

"Well, since there are so many nobodies here, maybe Maleficent didn't lock it to keep us out, she must've locked it to keep them in!" Mickey explained to the others. "But there's definitely something here, maybe it's on the top floor."

"Well then, what are we waiting for, come on guys!" Donald said excitedly. "Mickey's right, let's go!"

"Top floor, huh? Well, I wonder if the elevator works?" Sora asked as he walked over to the elevator door and pushed the button. The light dinged and the door opened up. "Well, I guess it does." Sora finished. Then the elevator dinged again and suddenly a screen appeared and asked for a passkey. "Well, I guess it doesn't. That means…" He paused and looked up, "the stairs… We're doomed." The stairs loomed up in a square type fashion, and seemed to go up forever.

"Well then, we better get going!" Goofy said, trying to lighten the mood.

But as he spoke, sorcerer and sniper nobodies appeared all along the staircase to the top.

"Yeah, we're doomed" Donald said sadly.

"No use waiting, let's go guys!" Mickey said, starting up the stairs, destroying the first couple of nobodies.

"Mickey and Goofy are right!" Kairi exclaimed, following them up the stairs. Everyone else soon followed as they walked up, destroying whatever got in their path.

"This ain't so bad," Sora said as he moved quickly to hit back one of the sniper's attacks right back at it, defeating it. "and look! From here we can see the top!" As he moved again, hitting back another shot. Only this time, he reappeared in the center and started to fall back down the stairs, "Oh crap!"

But Roxas managed to quickly jump and catch him and land on the other side.

"Thanks Roxas" Sora said as he got back on his feet.

"It's okay, you'll just owe me, okay." Roxas said as he started to laugh. When suddenly a sorcerer appeared behind Roxas with it's cubes already out.

Sora quickly cut through it and turned back toward Roxas, "Now, who owes who?" Sora couldn't help but laugh.

As they finally neared the top, resistance only increased as samurai and berserker nobodies appeared on the stairs. But with quick movements, they finally broke through as they reached the top.

"pant, pant, pant" None of them seemed to have any energy left as they defeated the last nobodies. At the top, there was a desk with a chair turned around behind it. On the desk there looked to be some documents.

"Those must have the info we're after!" Goofy said happily.

"We finally made it!" Riku exclaimed.

But as they walked forward, the chair suddenly became enveloped in darkness as it started to turn around.

"Organization XIII" Both Sora and Mickey yelled as the darkness cleared up, revealing a man with spiky red hair and little symbols under his eyes, sitting with his feet crossed on the desk.

"A, Axel! You, You're alive! I thought you died!" Sora said, not able to hold back his happiness.

"Yo, what's going on my pals. Roxas! Good to see ya man. Phew, got here just in time, wouldn't want you getting a hold of these." He said as he stood up and grabbed the papers on the desk. He held them in one hand as they suddenly started to burn.

"Wha! Axel, what are you…" Sora began, but Axel cut him off.

"You know what I'm like," He said, "I'm with whoever I believe holds my best interest." As he finished, the papers were nothing more than a pile of ash.

"Axel, how could you?" Roxas asked as he stepped forward. "I thought I was your best friend?"

"Yeah, and now look at you, you don't even hang out with me. Some pal." He bitterly remarked. "Besides, I have other interests here, so don't you start." He then took out his two chakram and started a fire behind them at the top of the stairs.

"Get ready guys," Mickey warned them, "it doesn't look like we're gonna get through to him."

Then Kairi stepped forward, "So, then, you're Axel? The one Sora told me that saved him? You, the guy who kidnapped me!"

"Hey hey hey, calm down little missy, I had my reasons for doing what I did, just like a have a reason for doing, THIS!" As Axel spoke, he lunged at Kairi, using his chakram to separate her from the others with a fire. She took out her keyblade and attacked him, but she missed as he jumped into the fire and appeared right behind her. He grabbed her, and using some strange power, he pulled Naminè right out of Kairi and threw Naminè towards the desk. As he threw her, a dark portal opened up with Saïx inside it.

Saïx took hold of Naminè and said, "Good job Axel." And with that he walked back through the portal, disappearing. Naminè could only scream.

"Naminè" Roxas yelled as she disappeared, "Bring her back right NOW!" He demanded of Axel with his back turned on him.

"Can't do that Roxas, you know, oh," Axel started, but broke off..

He was cut short as Roxas demanded, "I SAID NOW!" Roxas then turned around and was holding two key blades as he jumped at Axel, attacking with full strength.

But Axel just dodged his attacks and mocked him, "Why are you attacking me? I thought we were best frieNDS!" He spun his chakram around and threw it at Roxas, hitting him right in the face and knocking him back.

Sora then ran to Roxas, "You okay?" As Roxas nodded okay, Sora turned to Axel, "You bastard! How could you do this!"

"Geesh, everyone here is so touchie." Axel remarked as everyone started to surround him, weapons at the ready. "Oh no, what am I to do." He said in a monotonous tone. "Oh, I know! I'll just beat 'em all to a pulp!" With that, he separated everyone with his flames and jumped right at Donald, who was preparing a lightning spell. "I don't think so." Axel said as he hit Donald right in the chest and threw him against the wall. Riku than jumped through the fire and attacked Axel, but Axel blocked his keyblade and with an open palm thrust of his chakram, hit Riku square in the face, sending him flying into the desk, breaking it. Axel continued to run around the flames until he saw Mickey coming right at him. Axel quickly dodged to the side and started to throw his chakram like boomerangs in quick succession, each one doing more damage than the last. With the last throw, it went down like the rest did and came up right underneath Mickey as it flew up, crushing him against the ceiling. He then saw Goofy break through his flame though, so he summoned a moving wall of fire, which burned Goofy as he tried to break through. Axel then jumped over Goofy, throwing his chakram directly down at him beating him into the ground.

As Axel's flames started to weaken, Sora, Roxas, and Kairi saw the damage done.

"Riku! Mickey! Donald and Goofy too!" Sora was shocked at how quickly Axel disposed of them, and mad at himself for not being able to do anything.

Axel then turned towards them and started to complain, "Aw man, I couldn't beat all of you before the fire ran out. I'm sooo weak."

"Axel, how could you!" Roxas screamed at him, getting angrier and angrier.

"Okay, so I let the fire dim down a bit, what's your point?" Axel smugly remarked.

"Roxas, I'm with you a hundred percent. Let's get him." Sora told him, then turned to Kairi, "Kairi, I don't mean to put you down but, I 'm not sure if you can do much against him. See if everyone else is all right, okay."

"R, right Sora." She responded as she ran to Riku who was lying in the remains of the desk.

"Two-on-one, that's hardly fair." Axel told them.

"We don't care if it's not fair, we're gonna take you down!" Roxas told him.

"Well, since you don't care that I have an unfair advantage, I guess I'll just use my full power!" As Axel spoke, his chakram started to spin around him as a small fire engulfed him. He then grabbed his fiery chakram and threw them both forward. Sora and Roxas blocked them, but then Axel quickly sped up next to them, grabbed his chakram, spun around and hit them both square in the chest, sending them both through the elevator door.

"I told you it wasn't fair," Axel mocked, "but you didn't listen. Oh well, who's going down?"

"Damn Axel. Since when were you so strong?" Roxas said.

"Going down?" Sora asked, "and how might we do that?"

"Bad questions, both of you." He then threw a chakram that was on fire in the elevator and watched as it curved up and broke through the ceiling. It cut the wires sustaining the elevator and came back out to Axel's hand. "Haha! See you at the bottom!" He laughed as he saw the elevator start it's long fall, then walked through a portal.

"Sora! What do we do now!" Roxas yelled over the roar of the falling machine.

"I don't know, but if we don't stop this, we could die!" Sora responded. They were both squished against the ceiling, only separated by the hole the chakram made. Sora than stuck his keyblade through the wall, hitting the outer wall, trying to see if he could slow it down at all. Instead, he just dropped his keyblade.

"Sora, so we don't hit the floor too hard when it lands, just stick it through the wall of the elevator only! Then just hang on so we don't get thrown against the floor!" Roxas screamed. Sora then rematerialized his keyblade and followed Roxas' advice. As they neared the bottom, they suddenly saw the bottom of the elevator start to melt as the elevator began to slow down. The floor continued to melt as suddenly a great flame broke through the bottom. Sora and Roxas had to squeeze to the sides to avoid being caught in the flames. The fire than died down as the elevator fell a couple more feet and finally landed on the ground.

As Sora and Roxas walked out, still a little dizzy, Axel walked up to them and asked them with a smile, "Better than the stairs, right?"

"Why would you help us!" Roxas demanded.

"What! I can't help a friend in need! Then I'd be no friend indeed." He replied. "Besides, I don't want you to die. I'm actually here to get you to join the Organization again."

"Why would I join up again!" Roxas asked, now infuriated.

"Because," a voice behind them said, "we have Naminè."

They both flung around to see Saïx standing there, the portal behind him just closing.

"Saïx! Great, now there's two of them." Sora remarked.

"What did you do with her!" Roxas asked the blue haired organization member.

"Nothing. Yet that is. You can prevent her from being harmed if you come with us." Saïx told him.

"He'll never go with you!" Sora barked at Saïx.

"This isn't your choice boy, it's his." Saïx said, "We will do what we must to get him back." As he spoke, he brought out his giant claymore and swung it right at Sora, who ducked underneath it and hit Saïx's hands, knocking the claymore out of his hands. Sora than grabbed it and hit both Axel and Saïx into the air, then hit them back down to the ground.

"Come on Roxas! We can take them!" Sora encouraged.

"But Sora, Naminè? What about Naminè?" Roxas responded.

"We'll save her, trust me." Sora told him.

Axel and Saïx both got back up and got their weapons out. Axel lunged to the side throwing his chakram straight at Sora, who blocked every one. But as he countered Axel, Saïx entered berserk mode and started to swing his claymore like crazy, knocking Sora all around the room.

"Roxas, help me!" Sora cried.

But instead, he walked over to Saïx and asked him, "If I go with you now, you'll leave my friends alone too, okay."

Saïx then calmed down and said, "I will agree to your terms. It's better for you to come peacefully then struggling." He then opened a portal and lead Roxas through it.

"Sora," Roxas said, "I'm, I'm sorry." And with that, he walked through the portal.

"Axel, come. We can finish them at a later time." Saïx told him.

"All right, all right. Looks like you got lucky this time Sora." Axel said as he walked through the portal, followed by Saïx.

"We'll meet again, keyblade bearer." And with that, Saïx left as well.

"Yeah, we'll definitely meet again," Sora swore, "and next time, I'll destroy you, and get Roxas back." Sora then sobbed a bit. "I swear."


	5. Present to Past and Back Again

-1This ch. took absolutely forever. However, it's long, so it will hopefully hold you guys (who actually want to read it; all one of you) over. Although, the length might be a factor that contributes to why it took so long…anyways, Ch.5!

Chapter 5: Disney Castle

"First Namine, now Roxas… What are we supposed to do!" Sora complained to his friends, "We have to somehow get them back!"

"Sora, calm down." An exhausted Kairi muttered. "Roxas only left because of Namine. If we get her back, Roxas will return no problem."

Mickey then decided to join in, "Right now, I say we find a base of operations and determine our next move there."

"He's right." Riku enjoined, " but where should we go?"

"How about Radiant Garden?" Donald proposed, feeling that that would be the best place to go.

"No." Sora told Donald, "I don't want to involve Leon and the others, if possible."

"What about our castle your Majesty. It's completely safe now that the Cornerstone of Light is back in place." Goofy wondered.

"Right now, I believe that's our only choice." Mickey told them. "We'll cram into the gummy ship and fly to our castle. It's not too far from here."

The group quickly agreed to Goofy and the King's proposition, and left the World That Never Was as quickly as they could. The flight was relatively uneventful as they made it to the little planet with ease. As they landed though, they were shocked by what they saw…

The hanger seemed fit from the outside, but after they landed, it was quickly realized that the hanger wasn't in good shape at all. It was as if there was no longer a hanger. They looked around the rubble, wandering what could have possibly happened as two little chipmunks quickly rushed towards the group, squeaking as loud as they could, yet completely inaudible.

"Calm down Chip n' Dale." Mickey ordered of the little rodents, "One at a time please. Dale, explain what happened in here."

The little red nosed chipmunk than quickly blurted out, "HEARTLESSINTHECASTLEAFTERTHEQUEENDONTKNOWWHATTODOHELPHELPHELP!"

"But, the cornerstone," Sora whimpered, "we saved it, didn't we?"

"Someone may have snuck in." Mickey quietly uttered, "Just like when Marluxia attacked."

"Your majesty, that's not it." Chip chirped in, "the cornerstone is actually gone!"

"That's impossible!" Donald told the frightened little chipmunks. "It's too well protected."

"Unless, what if the door to the past was opened somehow…" Sora told the others.

"There's no time to think! Queen! DANGER! NOW!" The rodents yelled out.

"What! Let's go guys!" Riku exclaimed, urging the others on.

"They act as if it's the first time we've told them about the queen…" Chip muttered under his breath.

"Wait up real fast guys!" Mickey stated. "If the cornerstone is gone, we don't want anything getting through. I'm putting the castle under lockdown as a safety precaution. When we come back, I'll release it." And with that, a dome covered the entrance to the castle to prevent entrance and Mickey put a small key in his pocket that would lock and unlock the dome. And with that, they all continued towards the heart of the castle.

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As they ran through the castle, they defeated an almost seemingly infinite amount of heartless. They had barely made it through the rehabilitating garden, when yet another wave of heartless appeared right in front of them.

"Will this never end!" Donald yelled out in the center of yet another group of heartless.

"I'm gonna see if the Queen might be in the library. Hold 'em off will you?" Mickey asked.

"Of course. Check for her. We can handle these weak heartless. They're mostly shadows anyways." Sora responded.

Mickey soon returned with a grim look on his face, and told his friends "She wasn't in there. We have to get into the hall of the Cornerstone!" Mickey exclaimed running into the auditorium room.

"At this moment, the thrones look pretty far away…" Sora's voice wandered off. In between them and the thrones, there was a giant nobody with a scarf-like object around it's neck.

"What the, a nobody!" Kairi yelled as the giant white creature just slid across the floor to their position flailing it's arms wildly. As they dodged it's barrage of seamless attacks, it suddenly stopped and the room began to glow white. Before they knew it, they were all suspended in the air by small orbs of blue light .

The nobody first attacked the helpless King who was at the very edge of all of them. But Mickey dodged his stretching arms and flipped over in his shackles, cracking the creature right in the face. But it quickly recovered as both of it's arms reached out and grabbed the King, and the swung him around the room, hitting each one of his suspended teammates.

As the spell finally wore off, and the rest of the team was released from the nobody's strange power, Mickey still was being swung around. The twilight thorn then threw Mickey in the air, and as he began to fall back down, he stretched his arms out in an attempt to punch him. But Mickey strafed to the side of his arm, and with all of his strength, hit the large monster square in the face, sending it into the ground.

Yet with it's seemingly slippery body, it slid across the floor and went up the side wall. As it slipped right to the ceiling, it began to gather a large amount of energy within it's hands.

"We have to stop it!" Sora exhorted to the others, as he subconsciously knew of it's power.

But before anyone could even jump an inch, it the nobody threw the orb of bluish, purplish energy straight down towards the small group of heroes.

"Damn it!" Riku coarsely exclaimed.

"No other choice. We have to fight it straight on." Sora told Riku and Mickey with determination. And with that, all three rushed towards the sphere which could be their doom, and attacked it with their full force. The energy in the orb exploded, sending every person flying across the room. That explosion was then accompanied by a huge crash in the center of the room. The nobody was temporarily unconscious, but it wouldn't last long.

Sora and the others quickly recovered from the blast and rushed towards the creature which lay before them. Yet they weren't quite quick enough. Before they could finish it off, it raised itself above them and started to configure it's body in ways no body should ever configure. It was then looming above them like that off a spider, and was releasing powerful waves of energy in all directions. As it's energy traveled throughout the air knocking back all of the nobody's opponents, it also spun itself around in circles, to ensure that it's attacks hit every person.

Sora once again recovered himself and rushed straight towards the thorn's head. But with that energy completely surrounding it, he had to be creative in how to slip by it's attack. So with a series of reversals, he landed on the back of it's head and struck his keyblade right on top of it's cranium.

It then once again began to change it's position, once again in ways no body should ever be able to look like. This time it had it's head near the ground and was floating upside down. It then released energy from it's arms which now flew away from the creature while it's body moved about the room in a circular motion.

This time, Riku and Mickey lead the attack as they ducked and jumped over the long and tentacle-like arms. With a single reversal from them both, they swept around the monster's head and lead a combination attack. As they struck, the nobody once again leaped forward and stood up on it's two stubby legs. It then swung it's arms around the floor, knocking down those who surrounded him.

Sora ran forward, jumping right over an open hand headed straight for him. But before he could land, he was struck in his stomach by the twilight thorn's other arm. It then lifted it's arms in the air, in an attempt to smash Sora, but Sora had never released his grip from the arm which smashed right into his body, and when the hands were lifted high enough, he dropped down, keyblade the ready. With his remaining energy, he had smashed the nobody's head down straight towards the floor. But as it hit the ground, it's arms released little creeper nobodies which surrounded and protected the twilight thorn.

But just as suddenly as they had appeared, they had then just as quickly disappeared within the confines of an extremely bright light.

Working together, Goofy, Donald and Kairi had managed to move the throne aside, releasing the powerful energy stored underneath it. Yet the twilight thorn was still not defeated, as the light's energy only pushed it against a wall, blinding it for a few moments.

But those few movements were all Sora, Riku and Mickey needed, as they all three lunged forward, right towards the beast's face. With one final attack from the three of them simultaneously, they struck the nobody in the face, sending it to it's oblivion.

"Geesh, thanks for the save you guys." Sora told his teammates which had released the throne's power.

"Well, it wasn't easy to figure out. Without Goofy and Donald, I wouldn't have been able to open it." Kairi explained to her now weary friend.

"Come on guys, no time to waste." Mickey told them as he hurried down the corridor. The others quickly followed him down the staircase to the hall of the Cornerstone, to once again find the room full of thorns. There was a difference this time though, as there was no cornerstone in sight.

"It…it's true. It really is gone." Mickey said, now depressed.

"Plus, we never saw the queen." Goofy added, as if only to add to the king's misery.

"Do, do you think she's okay?" Kairi asked, thinking the worst.

"I don't know." Donald responded to her.

"She's fine." Mickey told them. "She wouldn't be caught off guard by any heartless or nobodies. If anything, she traveled through the door to the past, with any others she could find."

"Well then, what are we waiting for!" Sora proclaimed out loud whilst rushing towards the door. As the others followed him, he opened the door and stepped through it, quickly followed by all of his friends, to the Timeless River.

Once again, Sora was black and white, along with all of his friends. Kairi and Riku were experiencing it for the first time though, and they both thought something had gone terribly wrong. "Where are we?" Riku asked, completely confused by the change in color.

"That's right, you haven't been here before Riku, and you neither Kairi." Sora said. "This is Disney Castle, well, it's going to be. This is where it's going to be built. And, well, in it's past, it was colorless. Er, is color-less…" Sora tried to say, but got lost in a time paradox.

"So, this is a long time ago then, huh?" Kairi asked.

"Yup," Mickey responded, "this is my, as well as Goofy and Donald's past. I still remember it."

Nothing had changed since they had been there before. A small amount of construction had begun, but little else. Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and Clara Cluck still wandered around, looking as though they had absolutely nothing to do but walk around. Those windows were still floating on the hill as well. Even the cornerstone was still there…

"Let's split up!" Mickey exclaimed to the others. "We'll find Minnie much faster that way."

As they began to go their separate ways though, the characters of the past suddenly jumped up and started to attack them though, as Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow chased Riku and Kairi into the wharf, where they became secluded from everyone else. Clara Cluck chased Mickey into the window with Mickey's old house, while Pete jumped off the cliff behind them and attacked Donald and Goofy. Sora was running toward the port when he noticed Pete had attacked his friends, but when he ran back to help them, he was cut off by…MICKEY!!!!!! The past Mickey was holding a key blade like the real one, and was ready to challenge Sora.

"Wha the fu…" But Mickey quickly jumped at Sora, swinging his keyblade around as efficiently as the future one. But there was a difference between their attack styles as well. This one was more erratic, and kept Sora guessing at his every attack.

"_What happened here?"_ Sora asked himself as Mickey attacked him. After parrying a few blows with each other though, it became clear neither of them would gain an advantage anytime soon.

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Meanwhile, Pete was knocking down both Donald and Goofy with his powerful attacks. Goofy ran up to him with his shield at the ready, but Pete quickly disarmed him and threw him to the side of the hill. Donald tried casting a thundaga on Pete, but Pete ran straight threw the spell and crashed right into Donald, sending him flying.

"Goofy" Donald yelled, pushed into a corner, "heeeeellllppp!!!"

"Now I got ya" Pete exclaimed waving his arms wildly whilst charging at Donald.

However, Donald, in another attempt, casted firaga as he surrounded himself in flames.

"Ow, hot!" Pete yelled as he ran around screaming.

"Now Goofy!" Donald yelled, "Get him while you can!" But even as he spoke, Goofy was already spinning wildly as he crashed into Pete headfirst sending them both into the air and to the ground.

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Mickey was inside his old home dodging the Clara Cluck's rushing attacks and sharp claws. She had just jumped right above him in an attempt to claw him, but he quickly moved to her side and hit her thigh. She was about to hit the wall, when suddenly a black portal opened in the center of the room and started to pull everything in the room into it. It pulled Clara just enough to maintain her balance and land her claws on the side of the wall. She then jumped to the opposite side of Mickey, but with the irregularly powerful vortex, her trajectory changed mid-air, and she went shooting straight into Mickey with enough force to smash him into the wall.

"What are you doing Clara?" Mickey asked with genuine confusion. However his only response was the sound of Clara clucking. Clara then jumped right at Mickey, pushing him back into the window behind him, sending him to room with the tiny city.

The small towers were constantly firing small cannonballs at Mickey who worked his hardest to avoid the tiny little bombs. Clara Cluck then flew up and with her talons, began swinging them at Mickey, however he managed to block her attacks with his keyblade and quickly slid around her, smashing her in the back sending her down into the wave of cannonballs that blew her into yet another window, the one with the building on fire. Mickey quickly followed her into the next battlefield.

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Horace Horsecollar rushed at Riku with all his force, but when he connected with Riku's keyblade, he didn't have enough power to push Riku back. Riku then flipped over the horse and smashed him right in the back of his neck. After Horace recovered from his quick defeat, he stood himself up, and removed the collar around his neck, and flinging it in Riku's direction. Riku put up his keyblade for protection, put in the air, the collar suddenly opened up and went all the way around Riku, closing itself around him, trapping him.

"Great, little parlor tricks. Well, they won't work on me!" And with that, Riku ripped the collar off of his body and charged at Horace, who had, somehow, gotten a little bigger… "What the!" Horace now loomed above Riku with his muscles now bulking out of his body. "That collar restricted his power!" Riku exclaimed, "This oughta' be interesting."

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Kairi was attacking Clarabelle Cow with all her might, but to no avail. The cow was surprisingly quick in evading all of her attacks. Yet Clarabelle hardly attacked, save for the occasional punch. When Kairi realized that her regular attacks wouldn't do much, she then jumped back and prepared to cast a blizzaga spell. Alas, Clarabelle wouldn't allow Kairi to have everything her own way though, and she took the bell from her neck and started to ring it, releasing sound waves throughout the air. As the waves reached Kairi's ears, she suddenly collapsed to the ground, as her head started to bang from the pressure of the sound waves.

"What is that bell!? Ahh. sto, stop!" Kairi yelled, the noise reverberating throughout her head.

_Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring._

Kairi struggled and fought, however, she could not withstand the strange noise emitted from the bell. "Bitch, I'll, I'll kill you!" Kairi mustered just enough strength to use one small thunder attack that came down right on Clarabelle's bell, destroying it in one small explosion.

"_Just what is, that bell…"_ Kairi thought as her brain gave in to the immense pressure the bell had emitted earlier. Clarabelle then bent over, lifted her dress a little, and pulled out a hidden dagger. Her shadow loomed over Kairi's unconscious body.

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"Don't mess with me!" Sora yelled as the Mickey of old spun through the air constantly knocking Sora back. Mickey then quickly dropped to the ground and slid right under Sora's horizontal swing and with an uppercut, smashed Sora's chin with his keyblade sending him toppling backwards. Sora recovered in mid-air with a spin and quickly flew down at Mickey, however the small mouse quickly strafed to the right and with a powerful spin of his very body, sent Sora down to the ground in one attack. Sora managed to get up again, but to his despair, Mickey was already at his front, and thrusted his keyblade straight into Sora's ribs.

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"Get out a ma way!" Pete yelled as he ran wildly at Goof y who had just knocked him down. Goofy brought up his shield, but Pete then grabbed the entire shield, and with a great swing, sent Goofy as far as he could. Pete then looked at Donald, who quickly cowered before his brute strength.

"THUNDER!" Donald yelled, bringing down a yellow blast of lightning right on Pete.

"OWWW! HOT! Still hot!" Pete went around screaming as he ran blindly straight at Donald, knocking him out of his way.

"Owww, he just keeps running around." Donald complained miserably.

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Horace smashed down his fists into the ground, barely missing Riku as jumped to the side. Horace then reached into a pocket on his side and began throwing horseshoes at Riku, in an attempt to bind him. However, Riku would not fall for the same trick twice as he quickly dodged all of Horace's attacks. Yet Horace was not done as he managed to get next to Riku and smashed his fist into Riku's ribs, and tossed him up into the air.

While in the air, Riku noticed how Kairi's fight was going near his fight, and saw Clarabelle approaching an unconscious Kairi. His eyes widened as he saw the dagger in the cow's hand. "I have to help her!" Riku exclaimed as soon as he hit the ground. Horace than began throwing more horseshoes in order to distract Riku yet again. Riku had his own plan however as he strafed right by the horseshoes. Riku then thrust his keyblade above his head and caught a horseshoe around it. Then before it could ensnare his weapon he threw it at Clarabelle Cow whose hands were in the air ready to strike. The horseshoe wrapped around her arms tying them together and the recoil then sent her to ground.

"_Kairi should be safe now"_ Riku thought, but he thought so too soon as he noticed Horace in the air above Kairi, ready to smash down into her body with his powerful fists.

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_Cough, cough._

Blood slowly dripped out of Sora's mouth as Mickey's keyblade was thrust into Sora's body. Although the keyblade did not penetrate, it was definitely going to leave a mark.

Mickey then brought back his weapon and with a great swing, attacked Sora. Sora then brought up his keyblade in one hand, barley managing to block the rodent's attack, and quickly counterattacked knocking Mickey back. However, he recovered in mid-air and threw his keyblade at Sora, who smashed his keyblade into Mickey's sending it flying back. Mickey's own keyblade had smashed into his head and sent him rolling down the hill.

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The true King Mickey leaped at Clara Cluck with his full force. But before he could reach her, the building behind her suddenly exploded with a large fire and sent flames streaming out the windows, going right over Clara and heading straight for Mickey. Mickey then used a powerful blizzaga spell to try to counter the overwhelming fire, but to no avail, as the fire continued spilling out of the building, pushing Mickey back into a corner. Then running out of the fire, Clara charged at Mickey with her beak pointed straight at the King's round head. Realizing he didn't have a chance in that great fire, Mickey retreated to final of the four windows, the construction site.

Clara followed unmercilessly though for as soon as Mickey passed through the window, Clara flew through and brought down her wing hitting Mickey onto the unstable platform, making it bounce up and down, as though it were a trampoline.

Mickey quickly accustomed to springy platform, but when he noticed Clara Cluck actually flying above him, he began to really worry as he knew that chickens could not fly. Whatever was controlling her was pushing her to the limit, and even if Mickey did manage to save her with minimal damage, he knew that the stress and pressure that was being put on her wings would tear apart her muscles to the point where she'd never be able to use them again.

"I'll end this quickly Clara. I'm sorry." Mickey promised, bouncing around the platform. With his next bounce he came up directly underneath her, but she had the advantage as she was able to easily maneuver his attacks somehow, and after his every attempt, she would dive bomb him and send him back to the platform.

_Snap!_ One of the supports holding the platform had broken from the constant pressure of Mickey hitting the stage. Mickey, then deciding to take a different approach, climbed up the snapped rope and quickly flung himself towards Clara, finally connecting his keyblade to her body sending her into another one of the ropes that keep the platform up, breaking yet another of the ropes.

Clara then fell upon the platform, and she fell hard, as the final two ropes began to unwind and were ready to break. Mickey quickly went and retrieved Clara, when suddenly she began to glow a strange purple color, and a possessor heartless exited her body, emitting an electrical energy shocking Mickey. Mickey quickly retaliated and smashed his keyblade into the tiny yet powerful heartless, sending it into a third rope, destroying both the heartless and the rope. Without the proper ropes to keep the platform up, the platform began to tilt, and the final rope finally snapped. Mickey then grabbed Clara and jumped through the window back to the hill just as the platform collapsed.

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Riku ran as fast as he could and barely got Kairi out of Horace's way when he smashed into the ground, leaving his mark on the ground. He put down Kairi and charged at Horace and as Horace swung his great fist, Riku jumped over and landed on his arm where he quickly slashed Horace right on the head, knocking him back and pushing him into the water behind him.

Riku saw Horace's body float face up out of the water, and out of his open mouth, a small purple orb began to glow as a possessor heartless quickly flew at Riku in an attempt to posses Riku. _"It has…color…"_ Riku thought as it passed by him.\Riku then retaliated with a powerful swing of his blade and sent the heartless towards Clarabelle Cow, who was still tied up on the floor. The heartless then entered Clarabelle, and with the extra strength, she broke out of the horseshoe binding her and pulled out two more hidden daggers and she charged straight at Riku. Riku managed to dodge her surprise attack as she charged right by Riku, and as Riku turned around, he saw two daggers heading straight for his face. He quickly ducked under the daggers while the cow charged right at him with one more in her left hand. As she struck his keyblade, she quickly brushed it aside while she tried to strike with her knife. However Riku managed to grab her hand and twist the dagger out of her hand. He then strafed behind her and with a downwards vertical strike, he smashed her in the back of the head, releasing both possessor heartless from her body. Then firing a beam of energy from his keyblade, he pierced both heartless in one attack completely annihilating them.

"Kairi! Are you okay? Can you hear me?" Riku asked.

Kairi slowly opened her eyes, "Uh, what, what happened Riku?"

"I don't know, but your fine now. If your okay to walk, do you want to continue." Riku asked. "We can rest if you want."

"Are you crazy Riku, we have to continue. Now help me up." She ordered.

"Hmph, yes ma'am." Riku replied sarcastically with a smirk on his face.

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"Now I'll finish you two fools!" Pete yelled joyously as he charged straight at Donald and Goofy, who were losing their energy fast. The two barely avoided Pete's charge, but didn't get a long reprieve, as suddenly Sora jumped fight through them as he attacked Mickey with all his power. But Mickey quickly dodged Sora and counterattacked sending him flying into Pete.

"Sora!" Both Donald and Goofy screamed. "Grr, we have to end this now Goofy!" Donald yelled. "Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!" But Mickey elegantly dodged all of the shining bolts and struck Donald smashing him into Goofy toppling the both of them.

Pete was sent back and hit the door to the future. Sora then decided to finish him off, but Pete opened the door and ran through the door.

"What! Oh no! He can't go to the future! Donald! Goofy! I'm counting on you guys to handle things here! I have to go after him!" And with that, Sora was through the door.

"No problem Sora!" Goofy happily exclaimed. But right after he finished, Mickey appeared right in front of him and hit Goofy back at least twenty-five feet.

But before Mickey could perform a combo, Clara Cluck suddenly fell right on top of him. When he got her off, Mickey was put face to face with Mickey.

"This has to end, now!" The King said with determination. And with that, the past and present began an epic battle.

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Riku and Kairi moved onto the next area right after getting Horace out of the water. At the waterway was Pete's steamboat, just sitting in the water, when suddenly a large wave of heartless appeared surrounding them. As Riku looked around, he also noticed a small wave of possessor heartless appear around and enter the steamboat.

"Aw, crap. This is gonna be hard." Riku remarked.

The boat rose out of the water supported by thin body structure with the heartless mark on it. Both water wheels on both sides of the boat then began to stick out, as they became the arms of the large boat. The pipe at the top started releasing much more steam than usual, and the crane on the boat was swinging about wildly. The heartless even added to the boat as bomb heartless appeared on the boat while the possessor heartless created a makeshift cannon. Even the water was on it's side as thin areas rose out of the river bank and had the look of an upside down water tornado. And of course to make things worse, they were still surrounded by heartless.

"Kairi, you handle all the smaller heartless. I'm gonna go after that giant boat. I have a feeling it won't get us a ticket out of here." And as Riku finished talking, and invisible barrier surrounded the area, forcing the two keyblade masters into battle.

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Sora and Pete were now face to face surrounded by the thorns in the hall of the cornerstone. Pete rushed Sora, but Sora quickly side-stepped Pete's attack and tripped him. Then with a powerful combo, he threw Pete back into the thorns, knocking him down. As Sora prepared to return Pete back to his time though, the possessor heartless flew out of Pete and ran into the vines behind him. All of a sudden the room was alive as all the vines moved around, ensnaring Sora in a maze of vines and thorns.

"This can't be good." Sora said wide-eyed. "Looks like this'll be a challenge." He quickly turned towards Pete and started dragging him to the door as fast as he could. As he opened the door, he threw Pete inside, and said "I ain't got time for this…" But just as he was about to enter a vine smashed through the back of the door destroying it. "Nevermind, looks like I have plenty of time." Sora remarked sarcastically, preparing his keyblade for battle while all around him the vines moved as though it were a giant snake.

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The now heartless steamboat wasted no time in attacking Riku, as it started to spin it's wheel hands and swung at Riku. Riku quickly ducked under the attack, but was not fast enough to avoid the blasts of water as it shot out of the river. As he was pushed back, the cannons on the ship began firing explosive heartless at Riku, knocking him even farther back. Riku recovered himself and began dodging the cannon fire. He jumped over the propeller arm and landed on the actual wheel. He rode the wheel around to the base of the arm where he quickly ran up, dodging and blocking the water that shot up at him and landed on the boat, slicing through the cannons. But as soon as he got up there, the pipe at the top of the ship suddenly exploded with gas as the steam it blew became thicker than a fog, blinding Riku while he was up there. And before he knew it, the heartless' hand had spun right into Riku's body and had knocked him into the water beneath, which started to form a whirlpool.

"Riku!" Kairi yelled as she destroyed another heartless. "Riku! I'm coming!" But before she could take a step, another wave of small heartless appeared, blocking Kairi's path to the water. "Damn it!"

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_Thump thump thump thump thump._

The vines crashed around the room aimlessly, as if just randomly guessing where Sora was. Sora was much faster than the vine though, as he easily ducked, dodged and strafed all of he attacks. Then, everything suddenly stopped moving, and it was quiet.

"Now what's it doing?" Sora wondered, prepared to counter any attack.

Then, all the vines shot inward instantaneously straight towards Sora. He quickly reacted guarding himself from the vines as they swooped in. He hit one and broke it's tip, while the next one he jumped above and sliced down. He kept up this tactic until once again the vines stopped moving. They then began to fire the thorns off, which were much quicker than the regular attack. Sora quickly used his reflect magic though, repelling many of thorns. However, it wasn't enough as one thorn pierced through each of his legs, and another his left arm. "Gah! Damn it, too fast. But, hopefully, that's a one time atta-" but he was interrupted by the disturbingly fast regeneration of the thorns on the vines.

They then began to move again, as the vines began to sweep across the floor underneath Sora. He then jumped on top of them, careful to avoid stepping on any thorns. The vines then preceded to encase Sora within a dome that completely encased him. But Sora was not willing to just let that be, as he surrounded himself within a firaga spell so powerful, it actually burned the closer half of the giant vine that surrounded him. As the burnt and withered plants fell to the ground, Sora noticed an irregularity on one part of the vine, and it was moving along the vine as it emitted the energy Sora recognized as the heartless. He quickly jumped on the flailing vine pursuing the heartless within it, jumping over the still countless thorns. Then with his nest move, he dropped below the vine and came up underneath where the possessor was, forcing it to exit the thorns around it. And with that done, Sora wasted no time in destroying it.

Sora then looked at the remnants of the door to the timeless river, "Guys, be okay…." And with that said, a large part of the vine fell on top of the debris. "But, now what do I do?" He asked himself, blood still seeping from his wounds. "This place is pretty desolate now, but maybe I can find a first aid kit or something. Wait, Donald said he had put one in the ship, I better head there for now. I'll have to figure out a way to get them out of there though." So he walked out of the Hall of the Cornerstone with absolutely no idea how to help his friends, or even himself.

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King Mickey leapt into battle against himself, knowing that ha was the only one who could stop himself. But before he could even begin, Pete came flying out of the door to the future, and right after he came back, a giant vine burst through the door, destroying it.

"What the! Th-The door!" Mickey yelled out, with Goofy and Donald screaming uncomfortably as well. And while Mickey was distracted, he was attacked by his older version, and he was flung far back but he managed to land right on top of the cornerstone. The older Mickey then leaped up as well, and he and the King parried blow for blow on the top of symbol of peace.

Donald and Goofy could only look on in despair, as they knew that they would not be able to help their king, even if they wanted to.

The King was pushed back only a few inches, but it was enough for Mickey to push back his future form back onto the ground. While down on the floor, the past Mickey held out his hand and _poof! _He had stolen Mickey's keyblade and was now armed with two! The King tried to regain control, but he was still weak from his fight with the giant chicken, and couldn't regain control. Just as Mickey was about to strike however, Mickey grabbed the small thorn which was left in that world and with a surprise thrust, had cut his past self down to size, as both keyblades disappeared from his hands.

"Your Majesty! You did it!" Both Donald and Goofy exclaimed, jumping towards their king, but before they could celebrate, a large cut appeared on the King's torso, exactly where he had stabbed his past self.

"The wound never heals…" Donald's voice trailed off, and as he looked at the past Mickey, he saw the purple orb that floated out and headed straight for the king. But with his quick spell casting abilities, his thundaga was more than enough to finish it off in no time. "Goofy, help the King up. Is it still bleeding your Majesty?"

"Nah, it'll be okay. It just hurt a little to gain all those years of stress from one cut in about a second. Now hurry up, Minnie should be waiting for us." And with that, and a little bit of Donald and Goofy's help, they walked down to the pier, hoping to find the Queen.

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Kairi quickly eliminated many heartless as fast as she could, but there appearance rate was even quicker as they quickly overwhelmed her and forced her into a corner. "Riku, I'm sorry." She said, wishing she could have been of more help. But at that moment, Riku jumped out of the whirlpool that had almost sucked him in and cast blizzaga right beneath him, freezing the water that was about to shoot at him and landing on top of it.

The steamboat tried to look around but instead Riku used his speed to grab onto the wildly flailing crane and swung up to where the pipe was. He obliterated the steam pipe and the possessor heartless that had earlier blinded him in one blow, and quickly went into the control room where the steering wheel was located. However the wheel suddenly jettisoned from it's position, practically knocking Riku off of the boat again. Riku then regained his balance, but the crane had wrapped itself around his legs and picked him up, dangling him off of the edge of the ship like the catch of the day. Riku would have stayed there too, but using his dark aura attack, he pierced through the crane, destroying another of the manipulative heartless. When Riku landed back on the ground, he leaped at the body that supported the boat, and used a firaga to protect himself from the powerful water. Then he slashed the body like crazy, forcing it to fall on the dry land.

As it fell, it crushed many smaller heartless that Kairi was preoccupied with, and once it hit the floor, Kairi took her chance as she rushed towards the boat and thrust her keyblade through the gull of the ship. With that, the few last possessors had left the ship, but instead of continuing the battle, they ran off into the sky.

"Thank goodness your okay Riku, I was really worried for a second." Kairi resounded, her face beaming.

"Yea, I'm fine. What about you? Did the heartless manage to hurt you?" Riku asked with genuine concern.

"I'm fine as well, in fact, I'm probably better than you, so let's hurry up and get out of here." She remarked, running off to the pier.

"Huh? Hey, wait up Kairi!" Riku followed closely after.

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As Sora walked through the large auditorium room he was completely unaware of the fact that a strange, black-hooded figure was far above him. This person was literally standing upside-down on the ceiling, his guns aimed right at Sora's head.

"Heh heh. Here we go again Roxas. Like I said before, you shouldn't have betrayed us."

Xigbar remarked to himself, looking through his scope ready to attack. "Well, good-bye." Then with a pull of a trigger, Xigbar fired a series of bullets at an unsuspecting Sora.

"Maybe there's some other people somewhere in this castle." Sora wondered, halfway through the auditorium. But all of a sudden, his ears perked as the air behind him was cut by sizzling bullets heading straight for Sora. As Sora turned, the bullets fired were close enough to be seen in his eyes' reflection heading right at him.

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Mickey, Donald and Goofy all ran to the pier, and as they got there, they saw large group of heartless in a circle. "What are they doing?" Goofy asked, prepped to fight.

"I don't know." Said a voice behind all three of them. All three quickly spun around, weapons at the ready, but were soon rejoiced to see Riku and Kairi. "Whoa! Weapons down you guys. Save it for the heartless." Riku remarked.

"Hey, where's Sora?" Kairi whispered to the King.

"Well, he went back to the castle…right before the portal there broke." Mickey told her. "He should be fine, however we need to find another way out of here." But as he spoke, he caught the heartless' attention, and they began to attack, but they were no match for the team of heroes. And as they eliminated the heartless, they saw Minnie hiding behind a tree and she appeared to be talking a strange figure, shrouded in a strange light and fog.

"You, you promise?" Minnie asked the crude figure of what she could see. The figure's shadow nodded, and held out it's hand to Minnie, who took no hesitation to take a hold of it.

"Minnie! What are you? Who is that?" Mickey exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, your Majesty, but I have to do this." She said, face looking down. Bur before she could go any farther, another wave of heartless appeared and surrounded Minnie and the new stranger, as well as Riku, Kairi, and the others.

"Your Majesty!" Donald and Goofy yelled, trying to get to the Queen, but just as quickly as the heartless appeared, they were defeated by the strange shrouded man. And as he grabbed Minnie's hand, a large puff of smoke appeared, and when it had cleared up, so had the shadow and Minnie.

"Minnie…What is happening. It's as if they're trying to take those close to us. But he, he wasn't from Organization XIII. Minnie, what are you doing? How did he even get here?" Mickey asked, as if hoping she would return just to answer him. No one was able to say anything. Everyone had their mood dampened, as none knew what to do. They were losing their friends and they had no known way out of the past. What could they do? And this new stranger, is he friend, or foe?

"Uh, Donald," Goofy started, "what if the King could find that other door that Sora locked when we first came here?"

"But Goofy," Donald replied, "we don't know how to call the door."

But at point that Mickey stood up with a determined look and said, "well we have no choice." He held his keyblade in the air and started to gather energy.

"Do you know what your doing your Majesty?" Donald inquired.

"Not a clue." Mickey responded. He then fired the energy he had built up and shot it all into a single area, not letting up his energy. With his mind focused, Mickey managed to both summon the portal opening it for them to pass.

"You did it!!!!" Everyone rejoiced. "We can go now!" And with that they all stepped through the portal, without even the slightest idea of their next destination.

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"Wow, this time it was really easy Roxas. Did you get weaker?" Xigbar laughed as the bullets smashed down on Sora's location. But he was quickly interrupted by one of his bullets being returned to him. As it struck, it forced Xigbar to fall a little bit, but he kept his balance where he was.

"Xigbar! Why are you here!?" Sora asked in a loud tone. "And I'm not Roxas!"

"Why? Because you keep interfering with Organization affairs! We need to get rid of you before you become a, a liability, shall we say?" Xigbar laughed.

"What are you talking about? You guys did this to Disney Castle!?" Sora asked, his eyes burning with hatred.

"Perhaps, perhaps not. You want some answers, try beating me!" And with that, Xigbar began shooting at Sora like crazy. Because of the huge height of the auditorium, Sora had about one second before Xigbar's bullets reached the bottom of the room to dodge the attacks. He then proceeded to deflecting the bullets back at Xigbar.

"As quick as ever boy." Xigbar retorted, now directly behind Sora.

"Whoa!" Sora exclaimed.

"But not fast enough to beat me." Xigbar laughed as he began shooting at Sora again. Sora used a reflect to protect himself, but Xigbar didn't let up as he continued firing against the barrier. Sora could no longer hold his magic as his barrier broke unable to hold the pressure.

"AAAHHHH!" Sora yelled, pushed onto the ground.

"What a waste of my time." Xigbar remarked resting both of his guns on his shoulders. "But, I suppose orders are orders, even if they are boring. Well, any last words Roxas?" He asked, bringing his guns back down.

"I'm not Roxas for one." Sora rebutted sarcastically.

"What makes you so sure?" Xigbar asked with a devious smile. "Sora, Roxas, do you even know who you really are? If Roxas is half of Sora, then would it not take two Roxas' to make one Sora?"

"Your not making any sense. I know who I am, unlike a nobody like you. Ever since I first met you, you have tried to mess with my mind. It didn't work then and it won't work now!" Sora yelled, jumping up and hitting Xigbar's guns up.

"But it was the truth then boy," Xigbar remarked as he disappeared. "So what makes you so sure it's not the truth now?" His voice trailed through the air. He then suddenly appeared upside down above Sora, guns at the ready.

"Everything." And with that, Sora strafed behind Xigbar and hit him in the back with an aerial combo.

"What. Since when were you that quick Sora? Oh, I get it. I made you mad, didn't I?" Xigbar remarked with a smile. "Well then, just try to stop me." And with that, he flew far up to the top of the room, and began firing at Sora like a maniac. Sora, realizing his disadvantage, ran out of the auditorium to try to find a smaller area where he could hit Xigbar. "What, now your running!? Come now Roxas, you can't run and you can't hide." Xigbar then disappeared out of the room.

"Huff huff huff." Sora panted as he went through the hallway to the garden. But before he could get very far, Xigbar appeared on the other side of the pillars above the garden though and began firing at Sora through the pillars. Sora continues running though as he reached the stairs leading to the garden and burst through the door. The castle's dome was locked up at the moment, not allowing for any trafficking due to Mickey's earlier actions, but it was still a fairly large room. Xigbar still floated far above Sora raining down his bullets. Sora then ran through the garden to the gummy ship hanger.

"You can't hide in there Roxas. I'll just go in to get you. Why don't you come out. Make things easier on you?" Xigbar smiled devilishly.

"All right then Xigbar, here I come!" Sora yelled as suddenly Sora's ship the Highwind busted out of the hanger and started to fire rapidly at Xigbar.

"What the!" Xigbar said, a little surprised dodging the rapid fire, but he quickly regained himself and said, "Well, aren't you the little sneak. All right then, this could be fun. But since you get a toy, so do I." He smiled as sniper nobodies started to appear all throughout the air.

"I'll kill you Xigbar!" Sora started flying all around the room, destroying nobodies and attacking Xigbar. But Xigbar was fast as he followed the ship around firing at the ship's engines.

_Boom! _One of the ship's engines had blown, and it become dead, heavy weight, disabling the ship's ability to fly forward anymore. Xigbar then summoned more sniper nobodies to surround the ship, but Sora used the engine that did still work to turn the ship around, and he fired at the snipers that were around him, destroying them. But he was not quick enough as they were constantly firing on the ship, and then Xigbar appeared above the ship and fired down directly on the cockpit, breaking the small dome that encased and protected Sora.

"Damn it!" Sora yelled as his protection was destroyed.

"Looks like the jigs up Roxas, I win." Xigbar laughed. Then without hesitation he attacked the remaining engine that held the ship in the air exploding it.

"Not yet!" And as Sora screamed, he leapt out of the cockpit and grabbed onto a nobody that was nearby. He then kicked himself off of the nobody and jumped straight towards Xigbar.

"Whoa!" Xigbar exclaimed as barely dodged Sora's attack. Sora managed to land on another nobody and balanced himself on top of the nobody which was now collapsing under his weight. "Well well, your just chock full of surprises, aren't you? Well then, let's see how much longer you can last." Xigbar then disappeared and rapidly reappeared underneath Sora and the nobody and began firing. Sora quickly began jumping from one nobody to another, barely avoiding Xigbar as he reappeared and even fired on his own servants. With his constant disappearing and reappearing , Xigbar was quickly following Sora, and Sora was quickly running out of stepping stones.

"Damn it, I won't be able to get to him if it continues like this." Sora said as he barely avoided a sniping shot from his next stepping stone. Xigbar than began to fly in a circle around Sora leaving behind little guns ready to fire at Sora. As they began to fire, Sora led the nobody to the side to avoid the first wave of bullets, and he then attacked his ride to make it fall to avoid yet another wave, and he then abandoned the sniper as he jumped up as high as he could avoiding the rest of the bullets.

"I can barely believe it. You had no room to dodge, yet you somehow dodged. Your fun to play with without your little friends and your annoying limit attacks." Xigbar laughed. "But now what are you gonna do?"

Sora flipped back and landed on one of the last few nobodies still in the air and yelled "This!" And he leapt off the sniper and lunged straight at Xigbar smashing him right in the face and knocking him to the ground. As Sora and Xigbar hit the ground, the remaining nobodies dissipated away.

"Hmph, didn't see that one coming." Xigbar said as he stood right-side up for once. "You've done well Roxas," Xigbar remarked as his eye patch fell off his eye. "I'll surrender for now boy, but I'm far from done with you."

Sora then looked up, but didn't see number II's face as he turned back and stepped into a dark portal. He then managed to stand up, feeling every wound he had received that day. He then looked at the remains of his favorite gummy ship. "Gah, and the first aid kit was in that gummy ship. And, well, that was the last gummy ship. Crap, looks like I'm stranded here. Xigbar knows that too. If he comes back, I'm a sitting duck." But before he could finish his sentence, a dark portal appeared right next to Sora, and a hooded figure stepped out.

"_Fuck, looks like I'm through." _ Sora thought.

The hooded figure then removed his hood to reveal spiky blond hair and blue eyes.

"Roxas!" Sora rejoiced, "you came back!"

"Just for a moment Sora, I will be going back." Roxas responded.

"Wait, but why? We can get Namine back without you working for them!" Sora desperately pleaded.

"Please stop Sora. I have to do this." Roxas then proceeded to open another portal. "Go through here, quickly Sora. This will take you where you need to go."

"If your still with them, why are you helping me then?" Sora asked, confused.

"I'm sorry Sora, but there's no time. Don't get me wrong though, the next time we meet, we will be enemies." Roxas replied with a straight face. "Now go."

"Roxas, fine. But when I beat you next time, I expect you to return to us and to answer some questions!"

"Just go Sora. Please, you need to go before they find me."

"What if they did?" Sora wondered.

"Nothing, just go."

"Fine, I'll go. I'll see you soon Roxas, kay?" And with that Sora walked through the portal, and Roxas went back through his. They had both just disappeared when a third portal opened and Saix stepped out.

"Hmm, he's gone. This smells of Roxas. They'll both get their dues." And Saix walked back through his portal, leaving a now barren Disney Castle to it's ruin.

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Well, I finally finished chapter five. I'm surprised I got a review after it fell so far back in the pages though. Anyways, hopefully I'll have 6 up in a shorter amount of time (although I think I said that about this chapter…).


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